How the ballot initiative process works
To put our proposed law on the ballot in Massachusetts so we can pass it ourselves on election day by popular vote, we need to submit a petition to the legislature with signatures of 88,000 registered voters.
Massachusetts does not allow voters to sign a petition electronically. By law, signatures must be wet ink on an official printed petition form provided by the Secretary of State. The specific rules to put an initiative on the ballot are specified in Amendment Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution.
Steps for putting our initiative on the ballot
- We submit our initiative to the Attorney General on August 2, 2023.
- On September 6, 2023, the Attorney General announces that our initiative meets the constitutional requirements of Amendment Article 48, which allows us to begin collecting signatures.
- We then filed our initiative with the Secretary of State to design the official petition form for voters to sign.
- The number of signatures required for our measure to appear on the ballot is specified by the Massachusetts constitution as 3% of the number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. Currently, that number is 74,547 signatures.
- Only signatures of registered voters count toward the requirement. After a petition is signed, it must be submitted to the signer’s local election department, for them to verify that the signer is a registered voter. The deadline for signatures to be submitted to local election officials is November 22, 2023.
- After our signatures have been verified, we retrieve them from the local election officials and deliver them to the Secretary of State. The deadline to submit our signatures to the Secretary of State is December 6, 2023.
- After the Secretary of State verifies that we’ve satisfied the minimum signature requirement, our proposed law is sent to the Legislature on January 3, 2024.
- The Legislature will then either pass our proposed law as written, offer a substitute, or takes no action.
- If the Legislature does not pass our proposed law by May 1, 2024, we will need to gather an additional 12,429 and go through the same process again. The deadline for submitting those signatures to the Secretary of state is July 3, 2024.
- At that point, our proposed law goes on the November 5 2024 general election ballot so it can be passed into law by popular vote.
Why not put the petition online and let people download and print it? Massachusetts courts have imposed very strict rules that the petition form that a voter signs must be an exact copy of official form that the Secretary of State provides. (Remember what we said about the rules being designed by insiders to keep questions off the ballot?) There have been cases where Massachusetts courts disqualified a ballot initiative that submitted enough signatures because the signature sheets were not identical to the official form or had stray marks in the margins where signers made small scribbles to get the pen started on a cold day. (Yes, this really happened!) To make sure our signatures can’t be challenged because the petition forms are not exact copies (there is literally an official state regulation known as “the exact copy rule”), we are mailing signers an exact copy of the petition form that we print ourselves. This also allows us to custom print the signer’s name and address on the petition so once it’s actually signed, it’s easy for the city and town election officials to look up and verify that the signer is registered to vote. (One of the most common reasons for a signature to be rejected is that the city or town election official can’t read the signer’s handwriting when they’re verifying that the signer is a registered voter.)
Why do we need to collect two rounds of signatures? The Massachusetts Constitution requires a two stage process. In January 2024 our certified signatures will be delivered to the Legislature. At that time the House and Senate will have the option of passing the proposal as written. If the Legislature does not pass our proposed law, the rules in the Massachusetts Constitution require us to collect the second round of signatures and turn them no later than July 3, 2024 for the initiative to be placed on the ballot.
How the ballot initiative process works
To put our proposed law on the ballot in Massachusetts so we can pass it ourselves on election day by popular vote, we need to submit a petition to the legislature with signatures of 88,000 registered voters.
Massachusetts does not allow voters to sign a petition electronically. By law, signatures must be wet ink on an official printed petition form provided by the Secretary of State. The specific rules to put an initiative on the ballot are specified in Amendment Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution.
Steps for putting our initiative on the ballot
- We submit our initiative to the Attorney General on August 2, 2023.
- On September 6, 2023, the Attorney General announces that our initiative meets the constitutional requirements of Amendment Article 48, which allows us to begin collecting signatures.
- We then filed our initiative with the Secretary of State to design the official petition form for voters to sign.
- The number of signatures required for our measure to appear on the ballot is specified by the Massachusetts constitution as 3% of the number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. Currently, that number is 74,547 signatures.
- Only signatures of registered voters count toward the requirement. After a petition is signed, it must be submitted to the signer’s local election department, for them to verify that the signer is a registered voter. The deadline for signatures to be submitted to local election officials is November 22, 2023.
- After our signatures have been verified, we retrieve them from the local election officials and deliver them to the Secretary of State. The deadline to submit our signatures to the Secretary of State is December 6, 2023.
- After the Secretary of State verifies that we’ve satisfied the minimum signature requirement, our proposed law will be sent to the Legislature on January 3, 2024.
- The Legislature will then either pass our proposed law as written, offer a substitute, or takes no action.
- If the Legislature does not pass our proposed law by May 1, 2024, we will need to gather an additional 12,429 and go through the same process again. The deadline for submitting those signatures to the Secretary of state is July 3, 2024.
- At that point, our proposed law goes on the November 5 2024 general election ballot so it can be passed into law by popular vote.
Why not put the petition online and let people download and print it? Massachusetts courts have imposed very strict rules that the petition form that a voter signs must be an exact copy of official form that the Secretary of State provides. (Remember what we said about the rules being designed by insiders to keep questions off the ballot?) There have been cases where Massachusetts courts disqualified a ballot initiative that submitted enough signatures because the signature sheets were not identical to the official form or had stray marks in the margins where signers made small scribbles to get the pen started on a cold day. (Yes, this really happened!) To make sure our signatures can’t be challenged because the petition forms are not exact copies (there is literally an official state regulation known as “the exact copy rule”), we are mailing signers an exact copy of the petition form that we print ourselves. This also allows us to custom print the signer’s name and address on the petition so once it’s actually signed, it’s easy for the city and town election officials to look up and verify that the signer is registered to vote. (One of the most common reasons for a signature to be rejected is that the city or town election official can’t read the signer’s handwriting when they’re verifying that the signer is a registered voter.)
Why do we have to collect two rounds of signature? The Massachusetts Constitution requires a two stage process. In January 2024 our certified signatures will be delivered to the Legislature. At that time the House and Senate will have the option of passing the proposal as written. If the Legislature does not pass our proposed law, the rules in the Massachusetts Constitution require us to collect the second round of signatures and turn them no later than July 3, 2024 for the initiative to be placed on the ballot.
How the ballot initiative process works
To put our proposed law on the ballot in Massachusetts so we can pass it ourselves on election day by popular vote, we need to submit a petition to the legislature with signatures of 88,000 registered voters.
Massachusetts does not allow voters to sign a petition electronically. By law, signatures must be wet ink on an official printed petition form provided by the Secretary of State. The specific rules to put an initiative on the ballot are specified in Amendment Article 48 of the Massachusetts Constitution.
Steps for putting our initiative on the ballot
-
-
- We submit our initiative to the Attorney General on August 2, 2023.
- On September 6, 2023, the Attorney General announces that our initiative meets the constitutional requirements of Amendment Article 48, which allows us to begin collecting signatures.
- We then filed our initiative with the Secretary of State to design the official petition form for voters to sign.
- The number of signatures required for our measure to appear on the ballot is specified by the Massachusetts constitution as 3% of the number of votes cast in the most recent gubernatorial election. Currently, that number is 74,547 signatures.
- Only signatures of registered voters count toward the requirement. After a petition is signed, it must be submitted to the signer’s local election department, for them to verify that the signer is a registered voter. The deadline for signatures to be submitted to local election officials is November 22, 2023.
- After our signatures have been verified, we retrieve them from the local election officials and deliver them to the Secretary of State. The deadline to submit our signatures to the Secretary of State is December 6, 2023.
- After the Secretary of State verifies that we’ve satisfied the minimum signature requirement, our proposed law will be sent to the Legislature on January 3, 2024.
- The Legislature will then either pass our proposed law as written, offer a substitute, or takes no action.
- If the Legislature does not pass our proposed law by May 1, 2024, we will need to gather an additional 12,429 and go through the same process again. The deadline for submitting those signatures to the Secretary of state is July 3, 2024.
- At that point, our proposed law goes on the November 5 2024 general election ballot so it can be passed into law by popular vote.
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Why not put the petition online and let people download and print it? Massachusetts courts have imposed very strict rules that the petition form that a voter signs must be an exact copy of official form that the Secretary of State provides. (Remember what we said about the rules being designed by insiders to keep questions off the ballot?) There have been cases where Massachusetts courts disqualified a ballot initiative that submitted enough signatures because the signature sheets were not identical to the official form or had stray marks in the margins where signers made small scribbles to get the pen started on a cold day. (Yes, this really happened!) To make sure our signatures can’t be challenged because the petition forms are not exact copies (there is literally an official state regulation known as “the exact copy rule”), we are mailing signers an exact copy of the petition form that we print ourselves. This also allows us to custom print the signer’s name and address on the petition so once it’s actually signed, it’s easy for the city and town election officials to look up and verify that the signer is registered to vote. (One of the most common reasons for a signature to be rejected is that the city or town election official can’t read the signer’s handwriting when they’re verifying that the signer is a registered voter.)
Why do we have to collect two rounds of signature? The Massachusetts Constitution requires a two stage process. In January 2023 our certified signatures will be delivered to the Legislature. At that time the House and Senate will have the option of passing the proposal as written. If the Legislature does not pass our proposed law, the rules in the Massachusetts Constitution require us to collect the second round of signatures and turn them no later than July 5, 2023 for the initiative to be placed on the ballot.